Reviews
April 27, 2010
Telling the Truth in Vietnam: The Spy Who Loved Us by Thomas Bass 2
by Lydia Kiesling
The thrust of the Thomas Bass’s book as I read it is that Pham Xuan An was a purveyor of truths, as a spy and a journalist. If journalism can be said to change the course of human events, An worked in two opposing ways to end the war, one directly, with a clear national objective, and the other obliquely, by reporting the ugly facts to the world outside.
April 22, 2010
Home Away from Home: Philip Graham’s The Moon, Come to Earth 1
by Andrew Saikali
A recurring theme in Graham’s book is “Saudade,” a complex emotion “that combines sorrow, longing and regret, laced perhaps with a little mournful pleasure.”
April 20, 2010
Rumored Seasons: John Crowley’s Little, Big 11
by Cindy Jane Cho
For the first hundred pages or so, I felt the way I feel when I eat a hardboiled egg too fast and I have to stand still, sipping water until the thickness passes through my gullet.
April 19, 2010
Reading Wallace in Qatar 3
by Ibrahim N. Abusharif
David Foster Wallace’s piece turned out to be especially meaningful because he confronted some “bad news” about our times and supported it in his introduction with very clever meta-interpretation of the editor’s role, and he supported it more implicitly with his choice of essays.
April 16, 2010
Crude Satire: Teddy Wayne’s Kapitoil 0
by Theodore Wheeler
Most of Wayne’s previous work is under the banner of satire and farce, with numerous credits in The New Yorker, the New York Times, Esquire, McSweeney’s, and on Comedy Central, so the book’s lampoons are expected and expertly performed.
April 6, 2010
Brain Waves: Samantha Harvey’s The Wilderness 1
by Adam Gallari
From The Wilderness’s bravura opening, recounted from the navigation seat of an old bi-plane soaring to dizzying heights, Harvey outlines the trajectory of all that is to follow.
